The King of Ruin
by Leider Hosen
Summary: Questline concept for Dark Souls 3
1. The Lore

A/N: So, slight problem- I've already informed you, my lovely readers, that I will be suspending all projects in order to focus on my sadistic highschool studies. The problem- I CAN'T STOP WRITING!

Everytime I try to halt my projects in order to focus on school- I end up getting all my work done in advance, and everytime I play games, all I can think about is how much I want to make my own content-

IT'S A NIGHTMARE! So, I've been thinking about this little project- actually a pretty big project: an entire level concept complete with enemies, maps, and even some lore for the theoretical Dks3- of course, some areas will expand as I get ideas- since I typically deal with a very small number of really well thought out ideas supported by a plethora of useless and generic ones.

That's not really my aim, but my thought processes typically lead me in that direction, any ideas to inspire me are appreciated. Rated M for violence, language, and blah blah I'm in a bad mood nobody reads this far anyhow…

* * *

**Lore of the King of Ruin**:

Madness. Corruption. Forbidden Knowledge. Fallen Monarchs. These things have existed since time immemorial, every land possessing a variation of the dark- more than the abyss, but, the darkness of humanity- the human mind- itself. But, in a land of the distant future, with roots to the distant past, there exists a land with all these things at once- where the darkest, most twisted nightmares of the human mind came to life and walked the lands.

This is the story- the story of a man so horrid, his very name was struck from history- reciting it aloud forbidden in every tongue in every land. The architect of the undead asylum, the lord of the Bastille, the one who drove the undead to the gutter, to name a few deeds to his lost name.

The story of a man known only as "The Puppet King", or "The King of Ruin"

His story begins when the curse of the undead first began- when people stopped dying, going mad as they died again and again, only to be reborn in the flames. It was nothing that couldn't be managed, at first- undead only went hollow after many deaths, the first undead quarantined and kept from death in special prisons within the cities. But, things begun to escalate, more and more, across the world, exponentially, begun to turn undead.

A generation passed- at the point when undead would naturally die of old age, by human standards. Elderly undead, those without souls or humanity, couldn't reverse age: coming back to life only grow old and die again within the week.

This marks a turning point in the curse: when the numbers of hollows rapidly begun to outnumber the undead and the undead outnumbered the living. Soul starved armies begun to erode kingdoms from within- outbreaks of undead sweeping through. All attempts to halt the curse failed, and monarchs of all lands sought out a solution. Enter the King of Ruin.

The puppet-master was very intelligent for a man, well versed in many old myths and legends, and begun by importing mass numbers of undead into asylums and Bastilles across the lands- promising the lords of various countries yet to be affected that he'd find a way to slow the curse- or at least eradicate hollows permanently to prevent them from killing undead and making more hollows. Doing so required subjects under the influence of the curse, of course- but that's what the undead in the asylums were for.

Using traces of the ancient, long forgotten soul arts- unearthed in an old, dead kingdom- it was he who discovered the art of draining souls to restore life and gather power, and the fact such power could be transferred upon the death of a thing, living or not. He begun to venture down a dark path- promising the neighboring kingdoms that he would, if left undisturbed, create for them an army that could suck the souls from hollows, strengthening themselves indefinitely, and furthermore, the undead showed remarkable adaptive properties, able to mold themselves into any form based on the souls consumed- able to withstand experimentation far beyond the limit of normal humans.

It was a desperate action, but desperate times drove them to accept his accord: he would import undead, and make them battle ready to face the growing mobs of hollows, though he still hadn't found how the curse itself spread.

What was done to the undead in the asylums is yet unknown, but the results spoke loudly: he indeed sent the kingdoms living weapons of unspeakable shapes, but also unspeakable power- his creations able to destroy thousands of hollows for every one lost. Furthermore, he gave the soul arts to undead, allowing them to grow stronger with every kill- putting hollows down for good. But, as no small consequence, the thirst for souls returned to the land- an action that's still felt to this day.

Then, came another twist in the tale: the king of ruin, who'd like so many others peered into the nature of the soul, grew old and died, resurrecting as an undead. But, he had an abundance of humanity and souls, and now had more insight than ever into the hollows and how they drained life- his power multiplying as he created living weapons of even greater power, his vigor for "perfecting" the hollow radiating all through the lands.

Other monarchs grew disconcerted- their requests for him to stand down and halt his fiendish exports falling on deaf ears- until it became clear this was never going to stop, the King of Ruin immortal and in command of the most powerful army of abominations the world had ever seen.

Pandora's Box was opened, there was no closing it again. But, it didn't matter anymore, the curse of the undead and the fading of the first flame toppled kingdoms like dominoes, even with the initial plague of hollows slowing down with the return of soul arts, civilization fell apart all around the king of ruin, who fled to his home kingdom.

For many years, he was able to repel the swarms of hollows ravaging the landscape, his methods and agents for policing the lands and recovering corpses to turn into more soldiers without equal.

But, though his kingdom grew more powerful than ever before- his armies invincible without question, he couldn't stop the curse of the undead form penetrating his borders.

The cycle of undead rising, being stolen away, hollowed, and turned into soldiers to hunt more undead ate his kingdom from the inside: a set of great battles and conflicts reducing his grand cites to ashes, destroying his castle and laying waste to his subjects, until not one, not a single solitary human was left untainted by the rotten lands.

His kingdom lies in ruins now: the stench of decay, and the burden of hubris and unnatural power hanging densely over the lands like fog for miles around. No-one in their right mind dares to enter, and no-one has ever left- for it is said the old puppet king of ruin yet lives: fully conscious of his surroundings in a sub-city deep under the ground, his laboratories still running strong through the ages.

But, it is the nature of the undead to seek powerful souls, and seek certain death at the hands of great beasts if it will promise great power in return- a nature that will inevitably overcome the warnings and draw him or her to these cursed lands. Enter- you :3


	2. Undead Ramparts

**The Undead Ramparts**

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The first stage is a large, abandoned field- nothing but crumbling cites and farmlands devoid of life as far as the eye can see. The character will be allowed to explore this mostly flat, open plane with a great deal of freedom, numerous odds and ends in the environment to plunder, if you're inclined.

The sky is cloudy with large shafts of light peeking through, giving the map an overall grey and misty feel, though the sun is shining brightly in the distance (this detail is more relevant than it looks, I'll explain in the next chapter)

A feature that will appear as you draw closer to the main city a ways in is the fields of dead bodies, all soldiers and hollows, a few banners flowing in the breeze form the old kingdom. A hint at what you will be facing in the future is the large, abnormal skeletons seen here and there amongst the bodies. As you travel, you will be faced with these variations of enemy:

Hollow farmers (scythe): this one is rugged, and carries a long scythe for harvesting wheat. Does a lot of damage, but can be easily blocked and deflected aside, the biggest issue is his each.

-Droppable items: peasant wear, greatscythe.

Hollow Farmers (sickle): this one basically runs at you continually, flailing his harvesting tool. Doesn't do as much damage as the scythe wieldier, but his aggression will keep you on your toes- can be backstabbed after a large lunging attack.

-Droppable item: crescent scythe

Hollow soldiers: again, pretty straightforward enemies much like you'll see towards the start of the game.

This area is not meant to be all that difficult, even a lower level player would find themselves largely unchallenged, but the difficulty curves very sharply- some of the most sadistically difficult bosses from my mind to your game appearing almost immediately after this level.

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**Area Boss: The Grand Inquisitor, Lost Regiment, and Regiment Captain**:

* * *

As you draw close to the ruined kingdom, where there's clearly very little to nothing left standing- a cutscene begins: a large, metallic eye of brass with a glowing blue aura will come down towards you, observing your actions a moment before flying off-

The camera tracks the eye awhile, before it passes a large, dark figure with a black cloak in the style of a judge- complete with a long, dark white wig. His face is obscured by a porcelain mask, leaving only a pair of glowing eyes visible of his face as he looks over to you- raising a gloved hand and thrusting it into the air, unleashing a torrent of dark energy through the environment, small sprites entering the bodies of the countless dead soldiers around him-

He draws a very long strait sword with a flat top- sweeping backwards into the now foggy environment-

The sound of countless footfalls will begin to echo all around, a great war horn sounding as the silhouettes of all the soldiers who'd been lying dead begin to surge forward from the darkness. The camera goes to a large soldier on horseback, his decayed mount bellowing and rearing up as the captain draws his spatha (long thrusting sword used on horseback) and charges forward-

The background music is that of a great epic war- with a large female chorus and booming horns, as though this were their last stand and you are their final enemy.

This fight is a swarm, but there is no collective healthbar- there are two standard boss healthbars: the Grand Inquisitor and Regiment Captain, all the soldiers running around have their own independent healthbars like standard enemies, and respawn infinitely and randomly.

The soldiers around you attack at random, however, you HAVE to use your head and fight them tactically because they actually function as an army would, so plowing into them at random will get you killed very quickly:

Archers: attack from a range, can be one shot very easily but will attempt to run away from you. Aggravate all shield bearers, swordsmen, and rogues who will attempt to keep their ranged fighters working.

Swordsmen: carry melee weapons between greatswords, zweihanders, and longswords. Attack aggressively and will come at you the most often. Again, very low health. Fighting them aggravates archers and clerics.

Clerics: police the field and heal the soldiers, especially ones you're fighting. They also have a large buff similar to sacred oath- which makes all enemies that happen to be around them a lot stronger. Attempting to fight them will aggravate shield bearers and archers

Shield bearer: carries rapiers, estocs, spears, and large tower shields. Weapons are random but they always have a shield. Their damage is okay, but they defend much more then they attack and aggravate swordsmen, rogues, and archers. They basically soak your damage while everyone else runs in on you, so trying to tank them is a bad idea.

Rogues: they are seldom aggravated- but have great camouflage in the misty environment, and WILL do their utmost to backstab you if you get too distracted by the enemies you're fighting. Thankfully, their spawn rate is very low, so you don't have too many to worry about.

The Captain of the Regiment: rides his horse around the battlefield at very high speeds, strafing the environment and letting the army do the brunt of the work. At random, he will charge in and attack with a large sweeping or jabbing attack that is fairly easy to avoid since it hugs the side of is horse. Attacking him will aggravate EVERYONE over a massive area, so be wary when you engage him.

If you get his health down, you will knock him off his horse. His AI is aggressive and highly sophisticated: he will parry, dodge, backstab, and attack with both thrusting attacks as well as slashing ones that are slower but have a great deal of stagger power and damage. But, his health is that of a regular mini boss: a few good sets of hits will kill him so long as you get through his shield and have decently powerful weapon- until he is resurrected by the grand inquisitor immediately afterward. However, once on foot, he will stay on foot.

The Grand Inquisitor: Mostly spams soulspear and other large magic attacks from a ludicrously long distance, however his aim is fairly shoddy and he moves rather slow despite flying. Getting close will cause him to attack with his ultralongsword, which is ironically his strongest weapon despite being a mage as it has an excellent reach, a good level of damage, and carries a very wide angle.

Attacking him will aggravate the captain of the regiment, who will bring the rest of the army in tow. He has a good amount of health, and while he stunlocks easily, he will randomly blast away into the mist- stop- aggravate all clerics- and get healed while you're chasing him down. However, clerics can only heal him to a very limited degree only a few times, so if you wail on him enough, the healing shower will do little to save him from the next beating.

The fight will not end until you kill the grand inquisitor, but trying to mow through the army indiscriminately has a very low chance of success, especially if you let everyone gang up on you with the regiment captain in the center.

This fight is about intelligence and patience: dividing the enemy up (they're quite slow despite the fact there's a lot of them, save the captain- till you knock him off his horse) and attacking the key members before they can do their damage, as well as keeping calm and finding the inquisitor each time he runs away from you (the trail his spells leave behind are a dead giveaway).

In short- it's an army of one versus an army of many, until you defeat the inquisitor and put an end to it. They all fall- granting a massive level of souls between the captain, inquisitor, and soldiers (you are discouraged from wasting your effort fighting them, but they give you some souls if you do- and it adds up fast).

Even if you opt to kill zero soldiers through the battle, you will get a cool 25,000 souls for your efforts

**Special loot (I know you want it)**:

**-Captain of the regiment**:

-Grants his powerful "battlescarred armor" from the nearest special blacksmith

-Soul of the Captain: "A nameless general known throughout the land for his great tactical prowess and abilities, lost in the third war of the undead centuries ago. Use the soul of this legendary soldier to gather many souls, or create a unique weapon." Which creates:

-Captain's sidesword: "Sword of a legendary soldier, used to command legions at the front lines of countless battles" damage is okay, but it has excellent scaling bonuses for higher level players, can be used with a shield, and has the speed and critical hit rate of a dagger. A high stamina build the uses many hits will love this blade, but the required dexterity is very, very high.

-Or the Captain's shield: "shield of a frontline commander that weathered countless sieges. Grants its user the strength to stem any tide, but is extremely rigid and absorbs less shock than most." Requires a high level of strength to carry, and absorbs only 70% of damage, but its stability reaches a max of 100 and it grants twice the stamina regen of normal shields when blocking. You can't turtle behind it forever without a good bit of healing, but this thing is _unbreakable_- staggering someone with this shield up will be very difficult if not impossible, making it good for low poise builds who prefer to dodge but want a strong, lightweight shield.

**Grand inquisitor**:

-Soul of the inquisitor: "The head jailor of the ruin king's great underground asylum. Use this great, corrupted soul to gain an incredible power, or forge a unique weapon. What he was doing this far from his post is a mystery, but one can be assured it was not without reason…" which creates his sword:

-The rule of law: "A peculiar notched greatsword said to measure the sins of the guilty. But, a blade this seeped in darkness is hardly the work of a saint…" Causes a great deal of bleed damage and dark damage, with a mild health absorb to boot. But, it is knocked aside by shields easily, can reflect of walls in closed spaces, and it considered an ultragreatsword and moves very slowly as a result. Also has low strength and dexterity scaling, but high strength and dexterity requirements, though it has a high intelligence scale but awesome intelligence scaling.

When you're adequately satisfied, you may pass into the walls of the city, to the next area…


	3. Optional Boss: Raylurker

**Raylurker**

* * *

The shield of Paladin Leeroy was said to be blessed by a white flame- so powerful it could heal its user and chase away death even after uncounted years in the dark. But what was this white flame? where did it come from and more importantly, where did it go? Why did the land of demon's have a lurker in the flames, and the land of giants have a lurker in the dark, yet the world of gods never had a lurker in the light?

In Lordran, there are many, many stories that fade from memory as time passes on- many mysteries that are never solved- many heroes that vanish from the world, this is one such tale:

At the height of the occult war, the gods grew desperate as the four great lords started giving under the force of the occult. Havel used secrets of the gods to help forge a dark ember, the crow knights wiped out the silver knights with ice, powerful mages created effigy shields to repulse lighting- their dark weapons cutting down the god's supporters. Even Pinwheel, Nito's most trusted and powerful necromancer, who shared an honorary spot at the gravelord's side in the tomb of giants, stole the rite of kindling and brought it to the occult in exchange for leads in separating himself, as their patron was the mistress of black magic and had knowledge and had such powers.

The four lords needed a solution- a miracle, even- until they decided they'd solve this crisis with the same thing that'd solved so many others: with a powerful soul.

For the first time since the dragon war, the four lords combined all four of their powers to forge this divine soul: Gwyn drew a soul from the first flame itself, the witch of Izalith and her daughters of chaos giving it definition and form as the lord of sunlight poured his essence into it, bleaching it white. Gravelord Nito, the first of the dead, placed a seal upon this white flame- that death would never claim it's bearer, that Nito's own miasma would never touch it.

Finally, Seathe the Scaleless, using his vast knowledge of biology and alchemy- and other, more disturbing ingredients- modeled a body to carry the white flame: an angelic creature of incredible beauty and strength.

The body and soul were made one, breathing life into an archangel the lords knighted: "Bianca, the Raylurker." They trained her some, granting her a set of bronze armor and golden blades forged by the giants and enchanted by Seathe himself, and promptly deployed her into battle.

Though they feared their creation, an investment of many, many irreplaceable elements- would be destroyed, Bianca proved herself to be far more powerful than they ever dreamed. Her miracles were stronger than the highest battle priests, her speed and strength near unmatched, and tough she was largely untrained, she learned very fast with her dazzling intelligence, and proved invincible in combat- the flame within her chasing away the deepest dark, closing her wounds the instant they appeared.

So great was her might, the four knights would leave their soldiers home and simply bring Bianca: the one with the strength of a legion, the Raylurker, the greatest of the god's champions.

But, no good deed goes unpunished in Lordran, a fact she felt all to painfully as the tide turned on the darkness. When the Lords looked upon the raylurker, they saw a brilliant white flame- they did not see a very young, largely inexperienced young paladin trying to find peace with herself as she massacred the occult. The giant blacksmiths, under the order of Gwyn, took embers of her flame to forge powerful weapons, Bianca weakening as her flame was drawn from- for energy- for healing- for weapons- time and time again.

As her power waned, Bianca pleaded to be allowed off the battlefield- to rest herself since the power of her flame was unique: impossible to replace, very hard to replenish, but her one voice was drowned by the majority that needed her, so she saw the occult war to the end, the brilliance of her flame flickering. Even then, after the fight, she was considered extremely dangerous and violent, ostracized by the majority of people, sitting to the edge of memory.

Then, came another, even graver crisis. In Oolacile, a force of darkness unlike any the gods ever encountered rose- an abyss of blackness spreading exponentially. There was only one light strong enough to fight the darkness: the raylurker

But, they hadn't expected something: Bianca was a light that feared the dark- the rise of the abyss struck fear deep into her heart. Again, her pleas fell on deaf ears, the lords commanding even greater weapons and enchantments from her person to send a force into the abyss. Or, the first flame was flickering, now, perhaps it'd be better for Bianca could be cast back into the flames that birthed her- to kindle them awhile longer while they sent another into the abyss.

And she ran. The raylurker had reached a point beyond coping- fleeing Anor Londo and sweeping far beyond its reaches. All attempts to stop her failed, as Bianca was still the most powerful weapon ever forged by the lords, now fully matured and combat able.

She flew far beyond Lordran- having no place in the world, and continued to soar over land after land, placing the world of Anor Londo far behind her. Eventually she tired, settling down and concealing herself.

Time passed, and her name and existence were eventually forgotten as her birthplace fell apart, the curse of the undead spreading. She pitied the undead, helping one great paladin by soaking his shield in the white flame to assist him in getting back the right of kindling to help them, so long as he kept the truth- that the flame was a who, not a what, a secret.

Eventually, the land darkened, the Raylurker continuing her endless flight. Many kingdoms rose and fell over the centuries- souls and light flourishing anew with each new monarch, only to fade away again. But Bianca, the immortal Raylurker, hiding in sun wherever she could find it, cannot die, even as her white flame slowly flickers within her.

Weather the flame will last forever or no is unknown even to her, but her legacy, the very few that seek her soul to steal it's immeasurable power for themselves, always haunts her...

* * *

Much later, in the world of DkS3, you encounter a curious man wearing dark, tattered clothing wandering the landscape, upon talking to him, he will turn and start a conversation with you:

"Oh you, you have your senses about you right? Hmm, would you mind doing me a favor- It'll be well worth your while, i can absolutely promise you it will be worth your while."

No: "Hmph, well if you see anything- unusual, you know where to find me, now be gone."

Yes: "Yes- yes- I'm looking for- A woman, no, not just any little thing- a beautiful, divine creature, from a time long, long ago. I must find her, but she is very allusive. Should you see anything- unusual- please return to me." Continue conversation: "Well, i don't want to expose too much, just yet, but- i can assure you you'll know 'er when you see 'er." Continue: "I already told you, there's no way you'll mistake her semblance for any other. Now go." *loops endlessly*

You can explore the lands, and in a particular spot in every land- you can see the Raylurker land a moment, flexing her long, white wings to her sides and staring up at the sun, looking down at you a moment before flying off in her bronze battle armor. If you try to shoot at her with a bow, she'll simply keep flying, healing the damage instantly. You return to the hexer:

"Yes, that's her, the legendary 'raylurker', there can be no doubt about it!" continue, "My name is Milo, I have been pursuing raylurker for many, many years now." continue, "I wish to ask something of you- would you help me slay the beast? I ask for nothing in return: the raylurker is a creature like no other, an immortal, you aid in combating her will be more than enough."

No: "Ah- afraid, are we? A reasonable thing, her power is unparallelled, afterall. I will go on myself, good day to you."

Yes: "Excellent, i will go on ahead, and find the beast's lair. Perhaps we shall meet again, one day." Continue: "It's only a legend, but- the raylurker's soul is said to be a white flame: a relic of the first flame- the VERY first, not one of the rekindled others age to age, by an old king of sunlight. It was formed by an old flame witch, bleached to white by the sun, given a kiss of death by the old dead one, and given a body by an old paledrake of myth." continue: "the white flame grants its user everything they could ever desire: weapons, immortality, life itself- it's unlike any ember ever devised. Every era, as the flame fades, she makes pilgrimage to a new land- to a new flame. She fears the dark- so- it's hard to find her, and harder still to catch her." *loops endlessly*

You explore even more, and in the very souls-style manner, her resting place is tucked way aside on the map with little to no indication as to where she is, Milo vanishing when you've exhausted his dialogue. Your one main clue is that she's in an area with the sun still up, and you can expect her to be east, towards the sun. You eventually find a ruined cathedral at the edge of an old city in the game, a little high in the mountains (told you it was relevant)

You approach the white fog, Milo's summon sign already in place (unless you said "no", which you will see is a bad idea", and hear a strong, but scarred woman's voice through the fog:

"You- you've come for it, haven't you? The white flame... Leave me be. I have no quarrel with you, leave me be." You venture through the fog, and a cut-scene plays:

The interior of the area is in ruins, the columns broken and parts of the closing and walls torn away- but the area is very brightly lit, the stones like gold. you see the rayluker with her wings apart- her arms out as if to embrace the sun over the sparkling ocean on the horizon, her body surrounded with a white, gently pulsing aura from the white flame. She turns towards the character, showing her elegant bronze armor overlaid with brass laurels and designs, swathed in a white cloak layered under her breastplate and cut away at the wings. she has an open-face helm modeled after the sun- and very pale skin.

She draws her blades- two long, curved golden swords from her side, sweeping them aside as her white aura swells.

The bosses name reads as "Raylurker Bianca", and a massive orchestral breaks out, sending the clear message as you just made a huge mistake, and the creature you're facing is going to bless you with many, many brutal deaths despite her appearance (Matrix-Neodammerung for reference). She is only your size, but she is extremely fast and aggressive, flying around the room and occasionally stopping and walking towards you on the battlefield- but if you try to run up and hit her with a weapon, she will parry you and do a humiliating upward thrust with her crescent sword, followed by a massive kick to the chest that sends you flying across the room. If you try to backstab her, she will instantly perform "wrath of the gods" and knock you on your ass, same as if you stay on her side more than a few seconds, so cheaping her out that way will not work.

If you shoot her while walking (not flying, attacking, or lunging) with any range weapon, she will dodge and launch emit force- which will instantly stun lock you no matter what your armor is, so trying to cheap her out with archery will not work either. her swords act like chimes, and she has access to every miracle in the game- including healing spells, though she only uses those very, very rarely. Her miracle attack strength is also upped tremendously, with several special variations on miracles- like a lightning bolt cloaked in a swath of lightning or an AoE version of blinding bolt. Oddly, she is the one boss that will actually get LESS aggressive when you heal, but, she will respond by resting on the ground and boosting her natural healing greatly. The white flame regenerates her health rapidly, the counter to this being any form of darkness or dark magic, which will act like poison- draining her health while lowering her stamina regeneration. Her health is moderate for a boss, but unless you have excellent black magic skills, her regeneration speed and power will render her nigh invincible. she is intended to be extremely challenging, and will more than likely prove to much even with excellent Joly co-operation.

However, there is a way to take a major edge off of her: when she lands to walk towards you, she'll parry if you attack her head on, but if you roll past her and land a few good hits on her side or back, she cannot parry you and will take damage as normal. Another interesting trait is that if you backstab her or use fire damage of any kind, her wings will be cut/singed and greatly slow her flying speed. If you damage them enough, they will break and she will be effectively grounded.

There is a pro and con to this method: The pro is that she'll be slower and easier to hit with her weakness: hexes and dark magic. The con is that she'll be much, much angrier- using her miracles attacks more often and raising her healing rate as walking consumes less energy than flying, she'll also replace her gliding with great lunges and leaping attacks, though her range is severely reduced without her wings. Whether you want to fight faster Raylurker or angrier Raylurker is up to you.

When you finally drop her health to nothing- she will actually not die, but fall to the ground, begging for her life, especially if you sued dark magic on her "Pl-please- i don't want to die. You- I'll teach you everything i know- I'll enchant your weapons with my flame. Please..."

* * *

If you kill her, you will gain a good a amount of souls and:

-The white flame: "A flame imbued with the power of four great lords of a distant past. It's energy is like no other- and promises immeasurable power to all who bear it. The Rayluker of old- the vessel for this great soul, was forever haunted by its cost, and those who would reap it from her bodice. Take care you're fate is not the same." which can make her swords, which act as powerful chimes for miracles and greatly improve the power of sunlight blade when cast on themselves:

-Crescent sun blade: the swords of the raylurker, a divine beast hunted for her sacred white flame, hardening her into a warrior of unmatched power."

-Or, the White Flame ring, which consumes 100 souls a second, but grants 50 life regeneration a second in return, marking the wearer with a white aura: "Silver band radiating with intense warmth and comfort from the white flame. Those who can bear the burden of this flame will be protected from death, though many will covet this strength for themselves."

-And her "Royal Valkyrie" armor will appear an the special armor smiths, no particular strengths but no particular weaknesses, and its much stronger than the average knight armor.

* * *

If choose to talk to her instead of killing her immediately: "My thanks- I don't have much strength to give, anymore, but I will offer you what i can."

She will act as a merchant for all miracles in the game- including her own, explain her life story to you through dialogue, and enchant your weapons with white flame: shields offer slight health regeneration, and weapons get an S scaling on faith for lightning damage without the usual penalties for magic weapons on strength and dexterity, but it strains her flame, and requires an absolutely enormous amount of souls to properly imbue.

Weather you spare or slay raylurker, Milo will walk in and attempt to kill you for the flame, ranting to himself as he runs in a delirium attacking you with his powerful hexes:

Slay: "yes, at long last! the flame- tis' within my very grasp! die, foolish one!"

Spare: "You fool, can you even comprehend the power you're giving up, matters not, it is mine! I will pry it from her, when I'm done dealing with you!"

If he kills you, Raylurker will die as well, and either way you will lose the white flame, but you can track him to a dark wizard's tower- experimenting- and get it back by killing him.


	4. Beneath the Ruin

A/N: After another fun ragequit from the unforgivable nightmare of Demon's Souls, I've come back with more on my level concept. Yes, I haven't forgotten my other fics, and will get to them soon but while we're on the topic of fanficitons: PPL, WHY U NO REVIEW!?

I can't express how ungodly frustrating it is to put all this together, watch my views shoot up, then get no feedback or ideas whatsoever. Brave keyboard warriors: it takes TWO minutes to write up a review then 0.9sec to post it, please do :3

* * *

**Beneath the Ruin**

* * *

The next map, once you're in the interior of the walls of the city, you'll notice rubble prevents you from stepping into the vast, ruined backdrop of the old city, instead directing you to a decaying tower with an elevator at the center.

You take this elevator all the way down, and are greeted with a friendly cutscene as gaping holes start appearing in the elevator shaft: A dark, ominous tune would begin to play (highly reminiscent to the Flexile Sentry) as your character looks through into the city _under _the city, as it were:

The majority of the area is a network of streets with large, uniform buildings standing like tenant rows or many conjoined motels since they have stairs and balconies at the front, illuminated by old streetlights (the area is steampunk, for future reference) and a web of chains overhead with great hanging lanterns.

The city is fully lit, but still dim and eerie since all you see is the pale yellow light and long shadows for illumination. The camera shifts to a few prominent structures:

A pipeworks with a few loose connections spewing water, the pipes vanishing into an artificial canyon with a faint red glow and a few smokestacks.

A tenant row taller than all the others, with a bloodstained front and a few guards marching around the outside.

And, most importantly, a massive, dark tower looming over the city- topped with a great brass dome with a few brass eyes flying about.

The cutscene ends, the elevator halting at the bottom and letting you off. You'd be allowed to explore around- the streets mostly empty, but some of the row buildings have doors and cells you can open, the majority of movement being up the stairs to the second and third floors of the row to check for goodies and items.

There would be no-one to meet you save a few enemies: the regular enemies of this level are few, but very powerful and extremely deadly in groups, so you have to watch out:

Sniper: Undead that tend to linger in the second and third levels of the buildings with their sniper crossbows, and have excellent camouflage. They inflict a massive amount of damage and will aim for the head more often than not, staggering you with critical damage. Each time they shoot, they quickly run to another part of the building to fire again, keeping you from gauging where they are by following the endless rain of arrows from a certain place. They aggravate heavily when you try to heal, and have an incredible range, making them dangerous unless you find and eliminate them quickly.

The constable: a midlevel enemy that tends to linger around the roads with two or three other soldiers at his beck and call. He is abnormally tall, has a pair of large glass rods jutting from his back, and carries a distinctive steel nightstick. He doesn't move terribly fast, but he can take a massive amount of damage, cannot be staggered, and hits ridiculously hard

Police: typically follow a constable around in groups of three, they carry a random assortment of weapons and move similar to regular soldiers, but they are extremely strong and not to be taken lightly.

Floating Oculus: the brass eyes with a blue aura, they will not attack unless provoked, and will hit back with a large array of lasers, soul spears, and AoEs. If you leave them alone, they will simply follow you, orbiting your head from afar- aggravating every enemy anywhere near you, so it's a good idea to keep watch for them to shoot them down if they get to close.

Capturer: a high level enemy that only appears a few times in the level. Massive health and attack power, and they are very fast despite being a little on the large side. They carry a long, spindly rapier in one hand and a brassy version of the titanite catch pole in the other. They're main goal is to steal you away, so they'll bring their arm back with the catching pole and lunge. The lunge is highly telegraphed, but if you fail to block or dodge it, the sides will clamp down on your neck- requiring you to hit the bumpers extremely fast to escape. If you fail to escape, he will haul you in and stab with his rapier, likely a one-hit kill unless you have a good bit of health. And lastly, if you die in this manner (regular attacks won't trigger this) you will die as normal, but respawn in the Undead Holding Cells, which will not only be a major setback in the game, but trigger another event which could potentially get all your souls lost and hollow you (more on that later).

If you manage to survive long enough, you will encounter Agathyn, the last man alive in this map other than you. At a glance, he looks like just a raggedy hollow in dark, piecemeal clothing leaning against the side of a pillar holding up a balcony to a building. A prominent feature is two glass robs, like on the constables, only these ones are broken near the base, occasionally letting up a crackle or spark.

If you get close, he will look over at you and not attack, giving you the cue you can talk to him:

Oh, I thought you looked a little funny." He'd growl in a short, gravely voice, "We don't get many tourists around here, so let me welcome you: welcome to- to- aww damn, I can't even remember anymore. Welcome to Hell: population you, me, that pretty blacksmith in the pipeworks, and the old bastard in the tower. I hope you enjoy your stay."

Talk Again: "What? Does my attitude bother you, did I hurt your feelings? Good. Oh, but if you plan on sticking around, I have a proposition for you, if you're interested."

No: Alright, have fun dying. Just come back when you give up.

Yes: There's a lot of old junk around here- there's a lot you can do with it if you're especially creative. You find any souls out there, I'll show you what I got."

He opens as a merchant who sells plenty of healing items, armors, and weapons, including piecemeal armor and weapons, which is made of scraps of metal and fabric haphazardly cobbled together. Like crystal, they degrade fast, but are cheap and do bonus damage.

When you exit his shop for the first time: "Oh, since you're being a good little tourist and buying some nice little souvenirs, I'm going to give you a lice little tip: if you're looking for the bastard in the tower to claim his soul, you'll want to take the lift up to the dome. The problem is- the damn thing broke down years ago, and there's only one other. If memory serves- you'll have to go the far side of the living space here, to the main prison, then down into the catacombs in the prison basement. When you've crossed that- you should be able to find a back door entrance to the steamworks. Somewhere, don't ask me where, there is an elevator that will take you up into the tower- possibly a little shortcut you can open from the inside, as well. It's not much to go on, but the way I see it, that's the best shot you have- though the place is full of monsters. You'll be crushed long before you ever get there, but oh well- that's your problem, not mine."

If you get offended and try to kill him: He'll do a great leap away from you at 80% health, drawing his curved greatsword and tucking it back behind him, "Cheeky bastard… Do you honestly think I'll take that from you? I may look like a corpse, but I won't be bullied around so easily." He's very fast, strong and aggressive, and if you try to hit him, he'll either dodge of whip his sword out in front of him in a twirling motion (you see where this is going) parrying you aside. His parry move is as deadly as it is humiliating: he draws his sword back, run you through, flips you over and pushes you into the ground, plunges his sword into you several times, then finally finishes with a great stab through the heart- and a strong twist that wipes out the last of your lifebar.

His invincibility frames and parry rate are both ludicrously high, so beating him is nigh impossible. Luckily, when he kicks your ass you can come back and find him no longer aggravated, though he'll taunt you with: "Are you having a good day? I'm having a good day. Maybe now you'll think twice before assaulting _harmless old men_ like me."

* * *

Area boss: **Sauntering Behemoth:**

* * *

The fog gate stretches from one side of the street to the other, obscuring your view of the building beyond, but you can see the large structure of the prison ahead, you can know you're going the right way, passing through will start another cutscene.

Once again, a floating oculus will pass by you- this time moving slower and with greater focus, until it passes over. The ground shakes, the sound of metal on stone making a heavy noise in the distance. It goes to the balconies, were numerous snipers are setting up, sweeping back to the shaded side of the street, where a massive shape emerges.

It's a massive soldier clad in so much metal plates and armor he has to be supported by massive counterweights and chains hanging from a gurney on a track overhead, a steam motor spewing smoke and grinding on his back as he shuffles forward, throwing himself forward and smashing the ground with his rounded fists, causing an explosion.

The music that starts can only be described as "heavy"- with the heavy boom of drums and sounds of crashing metal layered in (two steps from hell- decimator). The first thing you will notice, aside from the various snipers attempting to shoot you from the rooftops, is the fact the sauntering behemoth is immune to ALL physical damage and only take 1% of damage from magic and pyromancy. No matter how strong you are, he is impossible to kill while he is armored, and despite his slow speed he has various AoEs from pounding the ground and his mechanized hands can sprout blades or claws that launch energy waves similar to that of dragon weapons: one blade producing a huge wave, claws producing a field of five small ones, etc.

Sounds impossible, right? Only if you charge him upfront and personal- his weakness is his armor- it's so heavy it needs all those chains and supports to let him move, and even if he moves, he is way too slow to catch you without the use of his AoEs and special attacks. You have to get past him, evading the snipers, and climb a tower. While you are climbing the guard tower at the far end (up stairs, not ladders) the snipers will try to shoot you down, while the behemoth will rear his fist back and thrust it forward, launching something akin to a supercharged emit force.

When you get to the top, you pull a lever, and a cutscene plays- letting you watch the gurney and counterweights detach from the rails, crashing down on him and exploding the steam engine on his back, exploding and wiping out three quarters of his health and destroying the fronts of the buildings, taking the snipers down with him.

But, before you celebrate victory, he tears himself from the ruble, using his mechanical arms, now smoldering and grinding, to rip all his armor off and stumbled forward, leaning back and bellowing in rage.

Now the real fight begins- although you got the pleasure of watching almost all his life disappear, that one quarter is actually equal to that of a full boss monster and will soak a massive amount of damage. His attacks are slightly weaker than they were before, but they will nonetheless cause you a ton of pain and his movement and attack speed are three or four times their old level.

Though he is big and clumsy- his movement is erratic and carries enough force to easily knock you from your feet, and if you stand directly behind him, he will fall back and crush you, and if you stand at his side, he will do the mother of all great jumps into the air and come down on your head in a massive AoE explosion. The main way to beat him is either from a range or to watch his attacks, since they come at you fast, but do have a slight pause to telegraph and warn you when to dodge or block.

If you die, you can return and find the archers are still gone, and the destroyed armor and gurney are still in a heap to spare you from repeating that part of the ordeal again, but the boss's health bar will be renamed as "Rampaging Behemoth" and shown as a full lifebar, though it's still the same amount of HP as before.

When you finally take this beast down, he will stagger forward a few steps, before falling to the ground and vanishing. He will drop his soul and armor:

**Soul of the Behemoth**: "The ruin king's strongest and most destructive solider, who carried the heaviest armor and weapons ever conceived and brought entire nations to their knees. Sadly, his soul, like so many others, couldn't withstand the ruin king's enhancement and gradually withered alongside his godly strength. Use this once mighty soul to aquire a myriad of souls or craft something of great value…"

which crafts the **Shattering greathammer**: "While not as potent as the behemoth himself, this model of his left arm, enhanced with petrified dragonbone, will certainly live up to its name." it requires 50 strength and 30 dexterity to wield, but it has an S strength and D dexterity scaling and moves very fast for a hammer. Its heavy attacks are very slow since they always need a bit of time to charge, but a successful hit will cause an explosion of force that will create massive damage and stagger/knock back anything in the game.

**Iron goliath's armor**: "Ironclad armor incorporating several wrought iron sheets layered over one another and bound in firm rivets. Only a giant of incredible might could pray to carry this much metal without outside support." The armor class is a step higher than Havel's, so physical attacks will play hell getting through, and while it's magic and lightning defense are lower, its fire resistance is near 100% and you cannot be staggered or backstabbed whist wearing it (if anyone attempts to backstab you, their weapon will simply reflect from the armor and stager them).

It requires 65 strength to wear, but even with the strength requirement fulfilled, you will move as if overencumbered no matter what your equipment capacity is. However, though it isn't listed, there is a secondary 99 strength and 50 dexterity requirement that if met will allow you to move at normal speed with the benefit of being impossible to stagger or backstab.

Even still, it is impossible to roll in this armor.

* * *

The Behemoth vanquished, you can proceed into the prison.


	5. Undead Holding Cells

A/N: my spelling and typing are probably going to be crap this time around since the herp derp eye doctor gave me these lovely eye drops to make his job easier- side effects include I can't see a bloody goddamn thing and my eyes feel like they're on fire! But, I'll do my best since I'm going to have to write this sooner or later anyways :3

* * *

**Undead Holding Cells**

* * *

The upper part of the prison you enter into is rather small, just a few stories of a generic ruined building, the real interesting parts are down below, through a set of stairs and a ladder into the catacombs. The place is not pitch black like the Tomb of Giants or Gutter, but the area is narrow and visibility is low, so your always on your toes since the only sources or light are sconces by the prison cells and a few hanging lanterns from the ceiling. Enemies that appear in the area:

Watchmen: an older undead with a hunchback, who shambles around the halls with an outstretched lantern. Not very good in melee and they have a low amount of health, since all they can do is hit you with their lantern, but they can actually conduct pyromancy through their lantern and do a lot of damage if you get cocky. And they are followed by a few faithful hounds sniffing for danger, because who doesn't love OP dogs? (everyone)

Inquisitor: they look a lot like the Grand Inquisitor, only their mask is different, they are normal sized, and instead of the rule of law, they carry a morningstar. Basic midlevel enemy with no particular great strengths.

Capturer: They're back! The capturers are the same as in the last level, and have the same effect if they manage to successfully snatch you, now I'll explain what the power actually does: when you respawn, you respawn at a bonfire deep within the catacombs in a torture room. There are roughly three or four inquisitors that stand around the room in case you escape.

What happens is that you spawn in pool of poison, clamped down by chains that prevent taking _any _actions with the bonfire just ahead. You need to rapidly press all the buttons on the controllers to break the chains, or you'll die, lose your bloodstain, get a notch taken out of your life, then restart the process all over again. If you hollow completely, the chains are cut (they assume you're a mindless hollow now) and you are free to fight the inquisitors. No matter how you get it done, when you're free, you kill off the inquisitors and are allowed to rest at the bonfire, replenish your health etc, etc. The biggest problem is that unless you've done this before, you'll likely lose your bearings and need to figure out where you are exactly.

If, by any chance, this happened to you before you beat the Sauntering Behemoth, a special cutscene will play when you leave the front door of the prison for the first time: this has you leaving the prison, the cutscene playing as normal, accept that now you face a wall of snipers, the behemoth sauntering in from next to you as you try to escape.

Naga: This thing with give you nightmares if you're lucky: they have the lower body of a snake with centipede legs, an androgynous upper body (you can decide for yourselves) that is split down the middle with ribs pulled open like teeth, multiple long, spindly black arms, and a baby faced head made of porcelain.

Inspired in part by Tim Burton's "9", this thing has, like many other creatures in the level, excellent stealth save the sound of claws tapping on the ground and a raspy hiss of a voice and laugh. Its claws are very damaging, and it can sweep around and hit you with its tail (which is almost guaranteed to hit due to the narrow quarters), doing plenty of damage.

But its worst attack is its grab attack: it has a very long build up with the Naga rearing back and drawing its arms behind its shoulders (you can break it with a stunlock or dodge it) but if you aren't paying attention or fail to stunlock, it will do an unblockable lunging grab, lift you from the ground, and stuff you into its chest, swallowing you whole and chewing with its ribs. If it doesn't one hit kill you, it will vomit you up in about five seconds, giving you ample time to regret being born. Worst of all: it can do this attack _before_ initiating battle. For example, if you were walking along and failed to hear it coming, it could stop behind a corner and start the grab attack, executing it when you actually round the corner and meet it face to face.

Imagine the first time you were walking along, stopped to admire the beautiful level design, then turned around only to be promptly eaten alive by this baby-faced gaping naga shemale _thing_ laughing like a rapist.

Fortunately, this miniboss spawns in a random location within the map, but their can only be one at any given time, so once you kill it, you can rest easy until you leave and come back.

* * *

A good point of reference is the Exile Holding Cells in the Lost Bastille, only made into a full level: there are long corridors with prison cells spaced all along the way. There are also supporting cells such as a storage area full of old crates and chests, a few guard rooms, and a few torture rooms full of blood and mangled bodies.

The place is homogenous and there are many looping staircases and corridors at subtle inclines and declines.

In other words, the place is like the Greek labyrinth: it is easy to get lost and confused, and since the place is full of capturers, a naga, and several nasty surprises, like dart and poison traps, and the area does have its own creepy ambiance full of creaking cells, wind, and whispering, you have to stay calm and keep a close eye on your surroundings or you will get lost, disoriented, and plain freaked out.

Luckily, there are brass plates around the level that identify the area you're currently in- that way you can at least get an idea if you've progressed, are going in circles, or have discovered a new location to explore.

And if you do explore, you can find all manner of goodies and loot, including unique weapons and armors off corpses, an optional boss (explained in the next chapter), and a companion that will make your life a lot easier:

You find a few different keys here and there on the guards and in the guard rooms, most of which open up to dead bodies or minor enemies, but if you find a room in one of the more secluded and hard to get places, you can open the cell and walk to the corner, where you meet a deformed, enormous man (about two heads taller than you, or 7'9) standing in the corner in rusty old armor and weapon that is basically just a pole with several heavy iron rings threaded on and held in place by a rough, triangular frames (barbell from hell). If you actually choose to talk rather than run in and attack at random:

"Hello- my name is Ten!" he shouts, his name appearing as "X" since he's in cell number "X" in corridor number "X", "Are you my friend?"

No: "Oh- I'm sorry. I will stand here now." Which he will do until you change your mind.

Yes: "Ah-ha- ahahaha!"

What makes him a particularly great companion is that you can ask him to trade equipment (through his "Barbell+10" already packs a beastly 450 damage at an S strength scale- harder hitting than even a greatsword) or guide you to different parts of the level, since he explains he's been let out on and off and memorized the terrain. If you dismiss him, or ask him to guide you- he will _own_ everything in the level for you, wandering around and obliterating all opposition with his barbell.

He doesn't roll or parry, and will block with a shield if you give him one but will always two hand the weapon he's given otherwise (so no duel wielding). He is tard strong- taking a stupid level of damage while dealing an even stupider amount, not even Nagas can hold up to him (if they try to grab him, he will grab them by the arms, flip them over, then smash then in the most badass dragon suplex in Dark Souls history). The downside is that he cannot leave the area, you may have to hunt him down when he's dismissed, and if he dies, he dies: no respawns, no phantoms, no second chances.

* * *

Area Boss: **The Contorted Man and Feral Maiden**

* * *

When you get to the fog gate at the end of this confusing labyrinth, you enter a room full of broken or leaning pillars, innumerable cages with trapped, distorted prisoners- mostly dead now- hanging from the ceiling.

A floating oculus (your bestest friend) will once again appear from the shadows, watching you, and float up towards the ceiling, shooting the chain from one of the cages, letting it crash to the ground. It leaves, a hand reaching limply through the bars of its cage, straining, then relaxing, the straining again-

Before it screams, ripping the door off its cage with its other arm entangled in the bars behind it- the figure struggling mindlessly forward until the rusted, weakened metal of the cage bends and tears, conforming to the arm, now twisted back behind it at a ninety degree angle, dislocated. It lunges forward, falling atop a greatbow and grasping it in its teeth, jumping upright and drawing the bowstring (behind it's head) backwards with its broken arm, seeing you and struggling to face you, though it's legs are twisted and bendy, so it has trouble.

Another figure leaps over a pile of bodies, a great curved sword sitting over her shoulders. A close up on her old, aged face reveals one eye has a hunk of metal stuck in it (likely from bursting from her cage) while the other is foggy white and rolling around-

The maiden steps forward, leaning her ear towards you and the contorted man while reaching her arm out to feel around before taking off at a run past the contorted man-

There ain't no boss fight like a double bossfight! Especially when they perfectly mirror eachother's strengths and weaknesses:

**Contorted Man**: can see you fine, and attacks from an infinite range with his bow and arrows- the arrows he picks up from the ground, since this place seems to not only be a holding place for prisoners, but an improvised grave for soldiers and discarded experiments. His arrows inflict a good amount of regular damage, as well as toxin damage since the arrows are filthy and rust-covered. Though he turns and walks very slow, his reverse joints are very strong, so he can leap a very long distance in any direction, and will try his best to leap out of your range and around magic spells. When he jumps, he can also fire midair, taking you by surprise, and cornering him is nigh impossible because there is a ton of space to move around in, and even if you back him towards a wall, he will simply to a series of ridiculously long leaps over the pillars and ceiling rafters to a satisfactory distance to the other side of the room, starting the process of bearing down on him all over again.

His weakness is that he takes forever and a day to aim, and when he draws an arrow back, he will continue to track you until he fires- in other words, if you move fast enough that he can't square up on you and fire, he will stay right where he is until you run up in his face and attack.

You can't exploit this trait, however, because the cage stuck to his back reflects all attacks from the rear and side: you _have_ to stand directly in front of him to attack, letting him shoot back at you (that way, the player can't simply step behind him and attack infinitely, because what fun would that be?).

The other opening to attack is when he collects an arrow from the ground: he needs a moment to find and pick one up from one of the many bodies around him- though he'll be in full on toad mode and leap away everytime you try to attack. You still don't get a free pass to beat on him, but you can keep him on his toes awhile if you're mobile enough.

**Feral Maiden**: She is blind, but is _ungodly_ hyper-reactive: Moving fast (above a slow crawl) will trigger a rush. Rolling will trigger a rush. Swinging a weapon, casting a spell, miracle, or pyromancy, or initiating any other form of attack will trigger a rush. Healing will also trigger a rush because slurping estus or smashing a lifegem creates noise. Even blocking with a shield (because the bang of an arrow on metal) will trigger a rush. The only thing that won't aggravate her is getting hit by an attack.

Basically, she is how the Old Hero should've been: despite her blindness, she will almost continually run after you, will give you no pause or mercy, and does a ton of damage unless you opt to use the Leeroy Jenkins strategy and charge in with your shield raised even if getting hit by her will only make her angrier.

If you try to hit her from a range and use magic, be prepared to hurt because she has a variety of jumping attacks that will overtake you and inflict bonus damage, and all her attacks inflict toxin damage because her sword is filthy and rusty (an remember that if you try to heal the toxin, she will aggravate and chase you down).

The only weaknesses in her attack is that while her attack _rate_ is ceaseless, her attack _speed_ is rather slow: she never stops attacking once she has found you, but each attack is heavy handed- staggering you for future attacks, but slow enough to see coming and avoid. She's also fast to aggravate, but fast to forget: if you nudge yourself from her combat range, letting her hit empty air, she will stop and go looking for you again, even if you're just a foot from her. As long as you're slow and patient, you will be safe.

Now, here's the bitch of it: you're fighting both of them at the same time. That means that chasing down the contorted man will aggravate the feral maiden- who will overtake and slash you apart. Likewise, if you try to slowly overtake the maiden, you will be shot full of holes by the archer- and any attempt to block or avoid the arrows (other than getting hit by them) will aggravate the maiden.

Can this fight get worse? Well, the only sources of light in the room are a scant scattering of hanging steel lanterns- which the archer periodically shoots down, progressively darkening the room, until, after roughly six minutes, it is pitch black save a lantern you may have brought with you. This renders you blind- you can choose to stay blind and fight the feral maiden on equal footing without the archer interfering, or you can light a torch, letting the archer shoot at you.

So dawdling around with this boss is not recommended.

In short- the entire fight is centered around keeping your composure- even with the incredible level of tension in the atmosphere and the nightmare theme of darkness blaring in the backdrop (Land Of Nightmares- INSANE for reference), you have to keep track of both enemies and carefully choose how aggressive you need to be.

The bosses are formidable, but they don't have a lot of health (not a pidly amount so they go down in two hits *cough*Prowling Magus Pinwheel Rat Vanguard*cough*, but enough health to be challenging while expecting you won't get very many hits in) and while the feral maiden cannot be staggered, her very slow attack speed still gives you exploitable openings if you have a good shield or dodging skills.

In the end, it's up to the player to decide, since it will be above all a test of adaptability and cunning under harsh circumstances.

When you finally take this deadly duo down, you earn 35,000 souls plus two unique souls, two unique weapons, and two unique armor sets:

**Contorted Man**:

Soul of the Contorted: "A twisted prisoner unleashed by his sadistic captor. Though he was none but the average peasant, his enhancements made him a dangerous force- but not dangerous enough to challenge the mysterious intruder that captured the king's eye." Which creates the **tainted bow**: "An ash bow coated with moss, termites, and acidic, rotten flesh. Buried in a mass, unmarked grave for uncounted years, it would take incredible skill to render this weapon anywhere close to functional, though those of a darker nature will find its tendency to putrefy flesh at the slightest touch most satisfactory."

As the description implies, it takes 2 strength but 35 dexterity to wield, only inflicts 10 physical damage, and degrades like a moist paper towel. However, it will toxin _anything_ in a single hit (save boss monsters and creatures normally immune to poison) and does quadruple poison damage (if toxin normally takes 20 seconds to poison a victim to death, this will do it in only 5)

Good for PvE or PvP, this basically fucks any and everything in existence that doesn't have the ability to heal with poison moss. Unless they're equipped to deal with poison, this is the veritable kiss of death.

**Feral Maiden**:

Soul of the Feral: "An enraged prisoner who tore herself from her shackles at the cost of her sight. Though she was none but the average peasant, her enhancements made her a dangerous force- but not dangerous enough to challenge the mysterious intruder that captured the king's eye." Which creates the **Corroded blade**: "A fathoms old curved sword that weathered the dank environment of a mass grave and spilled the blood of many an unwary trespasser. Unmistakably deadly but falling apart, the ragged edge will both tear at the flesh and assail the blood with poison and rust."

This curved greatsword inflicts heavy bleed and toxin damage, but degrades pretty fast, so you either need a lot of repair powder, or you need to choose who you use it on wisely. Otherwise, it's stats and scaling are average.

The armor is the "old prisoners" set for both, and are largely identical, save the fact that feral maiden wears a skirt, and the contorted man's gauntlets are actually a single gauntlet: a cage piece that covers the arm and boosts the stability of any shield by ten.

* * *

With another crazy boss- or bosses- out of the way, you are allowed to proceed to the end of the corridor and see the new map. (And yes, each boss is more warped than the last, at least for the next two :3 )


	6. Optional Boss: The Aspect of Darkness

A/N: By far my favorite boss concept as of yet, it's also one of my hardest because of course, the hypocrite that I am, I rage about how the game is too hard, only to laugh at the thoughts of how miserable gamers would be if I came up with X monster with Y ludicrous powers and strength X3

* * *

**The Aspect of Darkness**

* * *

While you're wondering the holding cells, you may come across, at the deepest part of the corridors, a sturdy iron door completely bound in chains. There is an outline of a plaque by the door and corridor, but the actual metal has been pried off as not to identify it, and the entrance to the hall is warded by an illusory wall and a few inquisitors. The guards and faint white spot where the plaque is gone gives away the fact there's an illusory wall, so long as you pay attention rather than blowing through. A chest at the end with a valuable item is made to throw you off, but further investigation reveals the deception, like Ash Lake.

The door is locked tight, but after reaching the Observatory Tower- the final level- you can find a single insane, mangled inquisitor, staggered against the wall and laughing madly within a sealed, hidden room tucked aside (the hint here is the sound of laughing, though there's no-one to be seen). The inquisitor will make no attempt to defend himself, and has only one HP, so dispatching him should be easy. Killing him will give you the average amount of souls and the "mysterious key":

"A small, worn, two-pronged iron key with many indentations along the rods. It looks as though it were made for many locks, though it was clearly crafted for a particular set. The ruin king never made an abomination he couldn't subjugate, nor a beast he couldn't tame- accept for one. When this anomaly of godlike power rose, he went to tremendous lengths to kill it, and when all failed, he sealed it away and went to great lengths to hide its existence. No sane man would dare seek this creature, as some things are better left alone…"

Needless to say, you can go back to the hidden door, unlock it, and enter the cell:

It leads to a mass grave much like the one at the end of the level, only this one is even darker- the faintest ambient light allowing you to travel around. The area has an ambient theme of its own- dark, distorted, and occasionally pierced with high pitched, deep laughter. The bodies here are more than just those of discarded undead, but also those of inquisitors and guards.

Also- you notice there are large areas barren of corpses, leaving only blood behind. A large part of the wall is busted out, though it's too dark to see inside without dropping into the void (you fall, but you don't die)

The cutscene plays: the camera drawing over what looks to be a ruined city in the glow of molten magma. The city has no direct parallel, but a close look reveals certain, subtle landmarks drawn from previous games. As you realize this, a tear appears in the fabric of reality- a fissure opening and dispensing a large coffin with pearlescent bones at the base- the coffin crashing into the ground and leaning on a stalactite.

A figure jumps up from behind the coffin, perching on its top and rubbing its hand over the surface- a disturbed music playing as you get a close look at it:

It is a long, slender figure, roughly humanoid though it has a disproportionality heavy build on its upper body, very long legs and arms, a long black tail, and no face or head- just a large executioner's hood with dark eyes and a wide smiled with light spewing forth (though her emotes as though it were his face). The bone structure on his body makes little sense, and his skin is a dark grey with a black swathe and webbed with sutures (like Frankenstein). It looks up towards the foggy side of the corridor, before laughing and leaping from the coffin- running on all fours at the camera.

At the bottom, you emerge from the fog- the bosses theme blaring out before you've even had the chance to engage it. The theme is loud, frightful, very uneven and lopsided, and conveys two very clear messages: this boss is insane, and he is insanely powerful (Vasilis Alevizos- The Dark Battle crossed with the aggression of Manus' theme).

When it attacks, the first you'll notice is how helplessly overwhelmed you will be- this bosses damage ranges from surprisingly harmless to one-shot kill with very little warning which one it will be. This is due to the fact this boss has an _ungodly_ large variety of attacks and the ability to switch attack to attack at the blink of an eye, here's a few you would see:

Claws: this thing is hunched over most of the time so you seldom see it at its full height, but it has a very long reach and will swipe at you with either claw. Worse? He can actually glide over the ground incredibly fast like the False King or Ornstein, overtaking you in seconds. Even worse? If he misses, he will sprout another arm from his back to smash you over the side as you get behind him. That's right, he can sprout extra limbs from his body to hit you even if you dodge.

Uppercut: he can throw himself back, sprouting arms from his stomach and smashing you upside the head, launching you into the air, he then jumps up, juggling you midair with an insane volley of punches and kicks, finally smashing you into the ground and falling by you as you stand up.

Grab: he has a few, the more inventive one is grabbing you by the throat with two arms, then grabbing your arms with another two, then thrusting his chest out and sprouting a final arm from his core to spear into your chest, the thing dropping you and then backflipping and giving you a massive dropkick to the chest, launching you into the air for another session of air juggling.

Tail: everytime he moves, you have a chance at getting hit with it since he flicks it whenever he spins or attacks (Kalameet style with the insta-turn of Manus).

Dimensional tear: he can rip a hole in the fabric of reality at will, either shooting attacks into it and materializing them next to you, or leaping into the rift, then opening another next to you and diving out.

Soul spear barrage: not only can he launch a curse laser or soul spear volley, but he can launch a soul spear submachine gun that completely destroys anything to slow to dodge or weak to block.

Soul Greatsword: he can materialize soul greatsword in either hand (or deulwield) and access his own sword style of spinning and jumping about to chain combos like a break dancer on crack.

Abyss magic: Pursuers, dark bead, dark orb, an AoE dark fog, he's got it all and uses it all.

After image: he slams down, sprouts a phantom from his back to slash you, occasionally going as far as the phantom spawning a phantom and phantom's phantom slashing you and so on.

This boss runs opposite to the usual formula for strong bosses: instead of going with less attacks with slower speed and greater damage, he has much, much more attacks that are faster but do less damage. Surprisingly, aside from his heavy attacks and abyss magic, most of his attacks only do the amount of a lower level boss- the problem is that he comes at you so fast and so aggressive, you have no chance to do anything save get your ass kicked: he won't let you attack, regain stamina, heal, or anything, trapping you in an endless barrage of strikes that rapidly compound and destroy your health as your stun locked helplessly.

Sound hard? Good, he's supposed to be a near invincible boss, but you can defeat him (I'm looking at you Ancient Dragon). His one and only weakness is that he has such a love of flashy and ludicrous attacks, as evident by the psychotic jester laugh he gives everytime he starts executing one, he can't or won't stop. If he begins a spastic spinning soul greatsword attack, he will continue spinning in place even if you've left his range to heal and cast magic.

His aggression also works against him in the respect that he tires himself quickly: his chain combos are absolutely devastating, but he rests himself up a few good seconds after each one. if you hack his tail off (so you don't take damage when he flips around), you can get behind him, beat on him a bit, then put your guard up or dodge when he spins about and starts his next volley- unless he leaps back and charges his magic- then you'd best find some debris to hide behind.

So long as you avoid the first few hits from him to avoid getting stunlocked, there's a good chance you can avoid the rest of his attacks and hit him at the end of the chain.

His lunging attacks also leave him open, much like Ornstein, you just have to avoid or block the tail or spawned arm.

This boss is pure skill: finding and exploiting the gaps in his attack at _just_ the right time and striking at him when the time is perfect.

Defeating this beast, a very hard task since on top of all that his health is stupid high, will yield 300,000 souls, and, instead of his soul, his head:

**Shroud of Darkness**: "A soft, comfortable, but very cold and vaguely disturbing sack that served as the head of the Aspect of Darkness. Its feel is that of pure humanity, and it resonates with the incredible force of the Aspect's godly soul. When the old one of the Abyss fell millennia ago, the shards begun to coalesce into new beings- the largest of these finding its way to a dark place in the heart of a demented, monstrously strong man. Feeding on the anguish and humanity of countless dying experiments and prisoners, this seed grew into a force of darkness that could tear the very fabric of space and time. This power, however, was never meant for a mere mortal- beware your soul is not consumed by its utter blackness."

This thing has a very special effect, which would be quite formidable in the hands of a cleaver player: when your wear It, it doubles the power of all magic (hexes are the same, miracles and pyromancy turn black, and magic turns violet), but you take damage equal to the original power of the spell _upon casting_ (to prevent exploitation of mutually assured destruction).

For example: if you cast sunlight blade on a greatsword, something at would normally bring it to 1500 damage with your scaling bonuses assuming you're at max level, you would now gain a whopping 3000 damage- and drop dead because you only have 1400 hp.

This one requires creativity, but is a fittingly preposterous reward for killing this nightmare of a boss. That done, you can proceed however you wish in the level- or use a red eye orb to go pwn some newbs X3


	7. The Steamworks

A/N: I'm back! This has to be the longest running writing binge I've had in a long, long time. A special thanks to the fabulous ASouffleToServeTwo for his support in this project, its words like his that make all this wasted time writing when I could be doing more relevant and boring things that much more rewarding.

And, because I pride myself in being demented, I bring you another level boss that shall mix your feelings between "dear god why?!" and "what the schizz is that thing!?" X3

* * *

**The Steamworks**

* * *

Now that you've hopefully surmounted the last trials, you come across a lift stacked with weapons and coffins- likely a service elevator back before this place was still running, bringing items into the catacombs to be disposed of.

As you ascend, the walls steadily turn from dank, collapsing walls to corroded metal and soot covered steel plates. The sound also changes from a dark, lonely atmosphere to the sound of grinding gears, the bang of metal on metal, and even the sparking of welding and whoosh of molten metal being poured (Nier- the Wretched Automatons, nix the electronics and replace the lighter tone with a darker one, though the place should still carry an aura of wonder and mystery since the character has never seen anything like this before)

When you get to the top and are allowed to move around, you can take in the sights. The place is basically a giant, artificial canyon made of metal: a continual gouge through the earth going from the ground floor to the open ceiling, where you can actually look up and see the "sky" with the pipes along the wall, a mist between reddish orange and white sweeping faintly through the area with a dusting of soot giving the place a feel of being hot and worn.

The place is the very definition of industrial: a set of ladders, corridors, and rooms going up the walls behind smoldering hot pipes. Rooms include forges, waterwheels, arsenals, and other advanced (for the time) equipment for creating and arming mass numbers of soldiers.

However, needless to say, it will not be a strait shot to the end of the level: the ground floor, where the exit is, is interrupted by flows of scalding water from burst pipes and damaged smelters filling the floor with flows of magma, which will kill you near instantly, forcing you to ascend the maze at the edges of the canyons to proceed.

Some corridors will be blocked with collapsed metal and broken equipment, while other malfunctioning equipment may explode or break apart if you get to close (unsafe working conditions).

It's not the preposterous nightmare of the holding cells, but you will still have plenty to see, though there will be many a hollow worker who will be less than pleased to see you (this is meant to be a nice break from getting murdered, so the enemies here are more numerous, but they go down very easy and have no great hidden power to surprise you with):

Wrench monkey: A deprived wielding a giant wrench seen working on the pipes, basically charges at you and does a good amount of damage on a successful hit, but is a big glass canon- going down in a couple good hits and proving pretty easy to outmaneuver.

Welder: they carry a great big tank on their back, a rod clutched in hand spewing fire in two ways: a small, intense flame close to the torch to jab you with as a close range weapon, or a mid-ranged, less damaging plume of fire that will fill the corridor. They can only fire in short bursts, allowing you to dispatch them easily- but beware, the fuel tank on their back bursts into flames and explodes after a few seconds, so run.

Riveter: uses a giant, steam-powered gun that behaves much like a crossbow, but fires faster and does far more damage- the high speed bolt harder to dodge than normal ones. Strictly ranged, good blocking or dodging skills will help a lot.

Floating Oculus: second verse same as the first, only these ones actually serve as sentries, shooting at you and calling the workers to action rather than passively floating around. Their main strength is their ability to fly: they can reach any level rather fast, and may try to hover out of your reach.

Once again, there is plenty of loot to be had if you pay attention to your surroundings rather than trying to rush, and there are a few different bonfires to be found to serve as checkpoints. And in one of the forging rooms (marked as safe, so no enemy will follow you in and endanger her), you can find a blacksmith working away in her personal forging room, her name appearing as "Alistair":

"Eh? What is it, you shambling… Oh, you're new here, aren't you? That's a surprise, really. So, are you here to gawk, or are you actually in the market for some weapons? I haven't had any fresh souls in ages."

Talk again: "What? You've never seen a woman blacksmith before? Hmph, rest assured, you'll hardly notice the difference when your carving skulls or whatever it is you men do. In fact, I've been playing with some of the old scrap and discarded tools around here- I think you'll appreciate them."

Talk again: "Persistent… Heh, you remind me of this romantic I met a long time ago… I wonder if he's still around, after all this time…"

When you break conversation and start asking about weapons, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find she sells not only plenty of standard and boss weapons, but special weapons made from the welding gear molded into swords and daggers (so steampunk melee weapons only hollow- fire bursting from various pores on the blade), the riveting crossbow, the firelance (an intense flame at the end of a spear shaft), and other specialty weapons.

They're like piecemeal weapons with the addition of a ton of fire damage, the downside being you can't beat them to death like regular weapons- if they fully break, they explode and ruin your whole day, so you have to keep track of the durability.

They are also disposable- they cannot be repaired and disappear if they fully break, so whether you want to use them or not is up to you.

Before you face the Area boss, there is a shortcut to the surface- a staircase leading to the underside of a sturdy metal plate. Pulling a lever causes it to grind aside, revealing the interior or a ruined warehouse. The front door has to be opened from the inside, but since your inside, you can open it to the city streets, putting you Beneath the Ruin once again.

If you choose to stop by Agethyn, he'll give you a very interesting dialogue choice:

"*Caugh* *hack* Damn, I guess you made it to the steamworks afterall- that, or you've been bathing in soot for a few weeks for fun. Hmm… Did you, by any chance, meet anyone sane on your trip- a pretty blacksmith, perhaps?"

No: "Aww, forget it then."

Yes: "Really? Hmm, funny, I thought I was really the last sane person around here for the longest time. Look, I know I'm not always the most polite person you'll meet, but could you do me a favor and give her my regards?"

No: "Oh course. Don't let me bother you with my- insignificant request, your time is very valuable afterall. Go to hell."

Yes: "Heh, I guess there is some decency in humankind afterall. Let me give you another friendly tip, since you seem to be a lot more resilient than I gave you credit for: I haven't seen it myself, but I hear there's something especially nasty lurking in the steam works, something that crawls. Once you take care, I believe their there's only one thing left between you, and the bastard in the tower. I have no idea what it looks like, or what abilities it has, but I know it's the last thing the king was working on before everything fell apart. It's advanced- damn advanced, I doubt you'll be able to defeat it, but if you do- come back and talk to me. I have something rather pressing I want to ask you."

Talk again: "Just worry about the blacksmith, as for the king- I have nothing to say until you get everything else mopped up." *loops endlessly*

If you said yes to his request, you can talk to the blacksmith and automatically have his regards given:

"Ha! How did I know that grumpy old sod was still about? He was always too tough for his own good… I'll be sure to hurry back, but I think I'll go pay him a visit, my projects have been a little slow anyways." You never see her leave, but you can infer she does while you're in the Observatory Tower.

* * *

Area boss: **That Which Crawls**

* * *

When you work your way to the end of the area, settling back into the lowest part of the canyon, you are immediately hit with a cutscene:

You hear this boss before you see him- the sound of dozens of footfalls at a time layering over themselves, until a great metal centipede appears, crawling down one of the pipes, accept that it isn't really a centipede:

If you were to take an X-ray inside its metal shell- it's be two rows of deprived, side by side, with a flexible, multi-segmented rod rammed through their stomach to bind them together. Their left arms would lift the one in front of them, while their right arm poke out the side of the shell holding various weapons- though this monstrosity has been repurposed to work on the machine, using wrenches, riveters, and various other tools.

The mass crawls down the side of a few pipes, hitting the ground and slithering around, before rearing up- revealing all the deprived underneath the shell with all their legs dangling- it's "face" folding open to reveal two deprived at the front with their heads locked in cages, giving their heads the appearance of eyes, before the armor plates fold closed and the crawling mass charges forward.

The theme breaks out (not sure what music would fit, suggestions are okay) and the fight begins.

Oddly, though this boss is the third to last, it's actually a lot more menacing than it is powerful. It cannot be hurt by any attacks due to its armor, but it is slow to maneuver and attacks by crawling close enough to a player to broadside them with all its arms wielding weapons- though it can also hit from a distance with its riveting guns. It's only frontal attack is that it can fold it's head open and lunge- the front two reaching their free left arms out to grab you. If they successfully grab, you will be pulled into the body and passed through the entire body, taking damage the entire way until getting spat out the other end.

If you stay out of the range of its arms along the sides, it will occasionally rear up and flop down, or lift itself and swing the front part of its body back and forth.

As long as you don't get freaked out by the appearance, you'll realize this thing is much too slow and clumsy to effectively hit you, the only problem is getting under that armor to damage it. When it rears up to look for you, it exposes its stomach, allowing you to attack its underside. Another opening is when it crawls over rubble in the cluttered environment or up a set of pipes on the wall to snipe you from the high ground a few moments, before turning and crawling back down the pipes, giving you a big opportunity to hit its belly as it crawls down.

What makes him a little more interesting is that if you damage a certain part of his stomach too many times, the deprived in that segment will die- breaking that segment from the rest of it. The segment with the two deprived at the head keeps the frontal armor, the segment broken from it being lead by the two deprived at the front with armor at the rear. If you break that segment again- making a middle segment- it will have neither front nor back armor.

The smaller the segment, the faster and more maneuverable it is, but it rapidly loses the ability to climb as a result. However you no longer need to climb because you can attack it from the front/rear now that it's unarmored. This boss's lifebar reflects how many segments are alive and how damaged the segments are before breaking.

It's like Millipede only larger and deadlier, the boss dying when you completely erode it away.

The boss gives you 40,000 souls, and the **Soul of a Crawling Siege**: "An especially bizarre product of the ruin king, these once numerous millipedes were one great siege engines deployed against hardened defenses, however, as their purpose grew outdated, the ruin king repurposed them for more domestic use."

This soul can be used to create a new spell: "Duplication". What this spell does is allow you to summon a doppelganger of yourself- the summoned phantom possessing your skills and equipment, but a very basic AI and only half your health and attack power. If you cast it a second time, the phantom will split in two, resulting in 1/4 of your health and damage.

Phantoms can subdivided twice: resulting in four clones with 1/8 your health and damage. Again, the effectiveness of this spell depends on how inventive the player who casts it is, but it should prove amusing for intrepid PvPers

Another travesty down, it's on to the final map and final two bosses…


	8. Observatory Tower

A/N: After much procrastination and sidetracking with my latest and so far most favorite project- Scrolls vs Souls- I bring you one of the last chapters of the King of Ruin.

After nine years in development, hopefully, it will have been worth the wait X3

* * *

Observatory Tower

* * *

After defeating That Which Crawls, you take the elevator beyond high up through the level, the Steamworks- seen through a grate in the wall- shrinking until the view is blocked altogether, taking the player to another walkway, where a few powerful enemies from the Observatory Tower lie in wait to stop the player.

After defeating them, you board a monorail, the car taking you down a track to the tower in the distance:

The final level is not as maze-like or complex as some of the levels before it, but it is still rather expansive (you pass through a cutscene, so you can afford to have a pretty good amount of places to explore. The place, you'll notice rapidly, is actually very well kept and cleaned- the King of Ruins soldiers policing the place as well as maintaining it.

The level is composed of various labs and libraries, a few optional minibosses found within holding cells. They are abominations like the bosses seen thus far, only these ones are a great deal weaker and less distorted, as though they were only recently worked on.

As for regular enemies, the Puppet King uses traps and automatons rather than abominations, as they are easier to control and very strong:

Homunculus: advanced infantry with various forms of weapons- they are solid brass with a blue oculus in the center of their heads, and make a faint mechanical sound whenever they move, smoldering slightly, so you know they are completely inorganic. They aren't too _strong _but they have the dexterity of a ninja- with plenty of rolling and leaping attacks, and a rapid rate of striking, especially the wielders of straitswords, estocs, and rapiers: who will remind you a lot of Prince Ricard with their rapid sets of stabs and swings. All soldiers, regardless of weapon, have a weapon in the right hand and a semiautomatic crossbow built into their right (behaves exactly like Avalyn, but they do not drop it). Easy to block, but will no doubt harass a player who isn't prepared to ward them off. They never drop armor: but have an extremely rare weapon drop that reads as "folded brass weapon". They inflict a medium amount of damage and actually take both strength, dexterity, and intelligence to wield, but they have an excellent moveset and great scaling for melee builds.

They are one of the only enemies that appear, but they are very hard to kill and highly flexible, attracting multiple a very bad idea.

Dark Oculus: they look similar to the floating oculus, accept that they have a red eye and long tail (they resemble a large, brass tadpole). They are faster, stronger, and much more aggressive than their counterparts- built for combat rather than surveillance. Aside from the usual spells- their tails can be used as whips, and they have a strong ramming attack that can knock a player off their feet if they are not blocked.

Traps: there are many, many traps in the seemingly ornate and lavish but straightforward rooms. Some of them are pretty simple, like the good old "dart trap" activated by pressure pad, while others are marked by something out of place, like blades sweeping from the walls, marked only by a notch in the walls or ceiling, while others do little damage, but are devilishly clever and may cause a lot of anguish if hit at the wrong time, like walking on a carpet with a diamond weave, only for swords to shoot from the diamonds because they are really holes. They can be deactivated with keys found throughout the level, making them a challenge of your perception.

Area Boss: **Shifting Mass**

* * *

When you get to the highermost level of the tower, you pass through the fog:

The area looks like any old workshop, with piles of tools, bits and pieces of armor sitting against the wall, and tons of scrap. Unlike the rest of the tower, is area is very dark and dirty, clearly forgoing lavish for functionality. The camera goes up from the floor towards the ceiling, through a hole into the second level, where a prism is hung, the camera shifting again-

You don't get a good look at him, but you see the side of man's face as he grins, a robed arm sitting on an armrest collecting a ball of power, before shooting it into the prism and directing a massive rush of power down into a figure strung up with chains with several glass rods impaled into him-

The figure snaps awake, failing and shouting as the player is seen reeling back from a violent blue wave, massive hunks of armor and scrap gravitating to the figure and encasing him in a ball, the chains breaking and letting him fall to the ground-

The battle starts, the theme reading as highly industrial, aggressive, and heavy to fit the boss (Phantom Power Music- Dark Avenger).

The interesting trait about this boss is that he launches himself into the air periodically to change his shape (including at the start of the fight, when the ball turns into his first humanoid form, his body is mostly humanoid, but he is much bigger than the average human, like Smelter Demon or Velstadt size).

He is invulnerable as he changes shape- and heals half the damage you inflict on him between now and the last change. So if he transformed from a mage (the robes emulated by metal, like everything else) into a berserker with a greatsword, you could take 3000hp from the berserker, but when he shifts from berserker to a flying figure with a deathscythe, he will recover 1500hp.

However, his invulnerability is an illusion, since he doesn't have a lot of HP to start with.

What makes this boss interesting is that he is always switching his weapons, attack styles, and abilities- never copying the same one twice until he has gone through all possible forms (5-8 would be a good number, the next form chosen at random). This means you have very little time to memorize his combat capabilities and strength before he switches to something completely different- you have to fight him as though it were the first time you saw him intermittently throughout the fight.

This boss has a lot of bite, but has an interesting trait- he can't hold himself together very well- everytime he hits your shield or you hit him with any form of damage, he starts falling apart (he doesn't lose HP to reflect this, so you can't shield him to death). If you hit the same arm three or four times with a Greatsword, that arm with pop off and disintegrate into useless scrap, same with his arms, legs, and torso. If you break him enough, he will simply transform again, but making a point break his primary weapon off before laying into him will make the fight a lot easier.

When you finally take him down, an omnipresent, vaguely metallic voice will grind through the room, as though from a speaker:

"Well done- you've managed to break every last one of my creations. I'm still not sure _how_ you did it- but nonetheless, _someone_ has to deal with you- little undead." The communication breaks off, an elevator sliding open at the other side of the room, inviting you in.

Killing the shifting mass will grant you 50,000 souls, and his soul:

**Soul of the Shifting Mass**: "the King of Ruin's last great creation. Designed to be easily mass produced from regular hollows, infinitely adaptable, and able to arm itself with any metal from around the battlefield, it was sure to be his greatest creation. Sadly, it never left prototype phase as the final undead war ended. Though flawed and incomplete, the power of this soul is incredible- and will make something highly valuable." Which creates a special ring:

**Magnetic Coil**: "A dense loop of wires and metal or an unknown type. Radiating an incredible dark power, it uses the arcane to manipulate magnetism. But alas, its power is incomplete, demanding an enormous level of humanity from an undead even at minimal power. May all tempted to wear this accursed ring be wary." Wearing this ring will instantly curse you- reducing your health to half. You cannot restore your health without removing the ring, and you cannot remove the ring without restoring your health.

What that means is that you cannot heal beyond 50% or take off the ring, but as soon as you use something like a human effigy or humanity, you will regain all your health, but the ring will be automatically disequiped. This prevents a potential exploit in the system, which will be explained in a moment.

So, what does this ring do?

You can buy a **pile of scrap** form Agathyn or Alistair, it's description reading as "A useless pile of bits and pieces of metal from the forges, machines, and armories." If you wear the magnetic coil, however, if will turn from a pile of scrap into a **Shifting Blade**: "A weapon composed of bits and pieces of metal from the forges, machines, and armories held together by a magnetic coil." Which takes a mean 70 intelligence and half your health by proxy, as the worthless pile of scrap is useless until you wear the ring, but it has a very, _very_ interesting special ability:

It transforms into the shape of the first weapon in the opposite hand, gains the damage of the second weapon in the opposite hand, and the special elements and abilities of the third weapon in the opposite hand.

So, if you had a shifting blade in the left hand with a greatscythe, dragon greatsword, and a catalyst (with soul greatsword attuned and set) in your right hand in that order, you would get this:

A greatscythe made of cobbled together silver metal with is normal scaling that hits a hard as a dragon greatsword, with a special R2 attack that causes it to glow blue and launch a _badass _energy wave

Or maybe Ricard's Rapier, a Morningstar, and a drake sword:

A rapier that hits as hard as a Morningstar, with an R2 that causes it to do a rapid series of thrusts that fire hornet-like bullets of energy that shred opponents.

You can't have infinite forms, but the dev team could have a riot with updates adding new absurd forms to this thing- the devilish special abilities intrepid players could unlock making this an insidious weapon, especially since you can get a second pile of scrap that- if switched _directly _into the first slot of the opposite hand- will mimic the other shifting blade, resulting in twin shifting blades.

There is one fatal weakness: the greater the damage and special abilities, the faster it degrades- to the point where a single attack could destroy it, and if players try to put three of their beefiest, strongest weapons in one hand, they could easily overencumber their character or at least force them to slow roll.

It takes intelligence to use, but should be a riot for the intrepid PvP community.

And with that, there's only one fight left…


	9. Final Boss: The Puppet King

A/N: and thus, one of my best projects thus far draws to a close, the first project I ever completed (barring one-shots I slapped together in an hour). It was an interesting experience, and now I hope to continue Scrolls vs Souls, my new favorite project as of late :3

I'm teasing the idea of creating another level concept- one set in ancient Egypt in the desert. No solid ideas, but if it goes into high enough demand, I'll consider it :3

* * *

Now that all you have to do is ride the elevator to the peak of the Observatory Tower, you have the option to summon Agathyn's assistance in the battle if you advanced his quest thus far (his ability to parry and high attack power will be very helpful in the last battle, and you get a few really sweet rewards).

A shortcut to the streets is to go out of the Shifting Mass boss room to a new corridor that unlocks upon beating him.

There will be an elevator to the base of the tower, next to the broken one you were told about much earlier. At the bottom, you can simply walk to the inside of a gate, and open it, putting you beneath the ruin, where you can go to Agethyn and talk to him:

"You crazy bastard, you really did kill every last abomination. I honestly didn't think it was possible at this point. Look, I'm no good at fighting monsters, never could figure the things out- but people: I'm real good with people. You have no idea what it's like- having your soul ripped out, and getting something else just- stuffed in, let me at that bastard in the Tower- I'm not as strong as you, but I'm not delicate."

No: "I see- don't want an angry old man slowing you down, that's fine. But if you change your mind, I'm right here."

Yes: "hehehehe- splendid- time to do some damage." He'll disappear the next time you leave the area or go to a bonfire, leaving his summon sign at the threshold of the elevator.

Final Boss: The Puppet King

* * *

You emerge from the elevator, into domed room- the dome made entirely of glass, allowing you to see the entire ruined, underground city below. A hole with a great prism hanging over it sits in the center, and to the far side, directly in front of the elevator, is the throne.

The whole time you ascend the elevator and access the cutscene, you hear the throne room's ambient theme: which incorporates church bells, a deep, booming chorus, and an Organ: giving this place an archaic, dark, but royal feel (Organ Jaws)

When you reach the top, the camera shifts to the great king: his throne is highly ornate, hewn from solid onyx. The king himself is an older man, not entirely superhumanly large- but easily seven foot nine to eight feet tall, giving him a menacing figure. He wears an aged, faded yet royal cloak faintly stained with blood and dust, his hands and feet solid brass, leading you to assume he has partially made himself a homunculus. The skin on his face shows signs of hollowing, deathly pail with his features slightly dropping and peeled, numerous self-inflicted scars over the whole right side of his face- though by the shape and pattern they are surgical cuts- clearly not battle scars.

Both his eyes are closed, but his royal circlet contains an artificial third eye- which trains on the player, the king opening his natural eyes- only to reveal those too have been replaced with brass one. He smiles-

"Undead-" he leers, rising from his throne to reveal his full imposing stature in the dim room, "So glad you could come. To replace me- or to vanquish me-" he laughs, "there's nothing here to rule, I'm afraid. But I've grown frightfully bored of this place- I think it's time I ventured, somewhere new- with a new beast at my command- one, more voracious and deadly than even I could conceive." He reaches to his side and draws a great straitsword with an ornate golden hilt and a blade of runed glass- which erupts into soul energy with a twist of his wrist-

The boss theme has elements of tragedy at all that's happened, angelic themes of his grace as a one mighty king, but tension at his great strength and the peril the player is in- as this boss is not only strong but has one of the deadliest and powerful special moves of any boss, I'll get to that in a moment (Devil May Cry 3- Vergil Battle 3)

His moves are fairly straight-forward: he has a very powerful sword that can be parried- but it moves so fast with so many strong movesets that balances striking with slashing it will not be an easy task. Aside from the blade, The Puppet King can use his free hand to access some powerful grab moves, and he is a Gold Medalist in kickboxing- his feet even faster and deadlier than his hands with many spinning kicks and karate kicks that will punish anyone that takes him from the side or back-

Trying to backstab this boss will not work- if you try- you will stab empty air as he backflips over your head and dropkicks you across the room for trying. He also cannot be stunlocked due to his mechanical legs, so you have to be wary he doesn't counterattack when you're beating on him.

His attacks have a slow rate- when he's done attacking, he will take a moment to march at you to show you what a terrifying beast he is- letting you attack, but if you try to take advantage and heal, he has a variety of lunging and jumping attacks that will trigger if you're not standing a good distance away.

By far his most dangerous moves are his magic ones- his sword is also a catalyst for powerful spells, he has very dangerous blue pyromancy flame attacks, and if he holds perfectly still and puts his hands to his temples- watch out because he has telekinesis and force which are unleashed as his eyes flash blindingly bright blue with a high pitched shriek, which can easily take you off-guard at close range and cause a lot of anguish.

This leads to another trait, you _cannot_ attack him with magic while he is passive (walking around like 'oh, you only wish you were as beast as me') if you try, he will put out his sword- generating a white shield as his central eye glows brightly, reflecting all magic, pyromancies, and miracles.

But his deadliest move of all is possession: you can clearly see it coming when he stops, reaches into his robes, and draws a glass rod- like the broken ones you see on Agathyn and the ones you've seen intermittently on various enemies. That's your cue to get gone, as the Puppet King will run at you full speed with his arm outstretched-

He runs as fast as you do and this particular move is _unblockable_, so you need to make sure you store up stamina for the five-ish seconds it takes for him to draw the rod and start running.

If he gets close enough (within melee range), he will lunge and stab the rod into a random limb, paralyzing it for the rest of the fight. An arm cannot hold a shield or weapon, a leg results in half speed, unless he got both then you're SOL, and a torso results in less health, stamina, and equip capacity.

But the deadliest, which has the lowest chance of success, is the head. If he hits you there- you die instantly- game over- doneso. But it gets worse- when you resuscitate at the bonfire, all your equipment will be gone- missing from your inventory while you stand at the bonfire naked and fully hollowed.

You find your body with all your equipment again- in the boss room- fighting alongside the boss. That's right- you fight _you_, your highjacked body even getting its own healthbar next to the Puppet King, the king giving a special taunt when he does this.

Thankfully, Agethyn is a very strong ally and is immune to this move, still, be wary as this attack is fairly easy to avoid- you literally just run away for a few seconds, but potentially game-breaking if you're OP enough. He also can only have one stolen body on the field at once- so you don't get ganked by yourself.

When you finally dispatch this Great Lord, you get 60,000 souls, the **Soul of Ruin**: "The blackened soul of the Ruin King. Why he became the monster he is today is unknown- but though this soul is withered and rotten- it still possesses an unparalleled arcane might. Use the soul of this mad king to gather an incredible amount of souls or forge a unique artifact" which forges:

**Arcane Glass Sabre**: "The sword of the King of Ruin, though it's blade appears to be softened glass, it is eerily resistant to nicks and scratches- it's blade deriving strength form the souls the user has drawn from his victims- reflecting it's wielders insatiable appetite for strength." This sabre is a very physically strong straitsword with a good moveset and excellent magic damage, a scaling bonus of C across the board for strength, dexterity, and magic. It cannot be buffed with anything, but this weakness, however, pales in comparison to its special power: it derides power from the user's SL. 75% of it to be precise, up to a maximum of about +525 damage on top of scaling at max level, making it the strongest of all strait swords in the theoretical DksIII by a wide margin.

And the last reward: the **Crown of Ruin**: "A plain looking circlet containing an inset gem molded after the true King of Ruin's eye. With the strength to bind the abominations of the ruin, this is a fitting crown for a new monarch of the ruin." Wearing this will make _all _enemies in the entire region save optional bosses (by now all the required bosses in this particular questline are dead and the enemies aren't too much of a threat, so this isn't too gamebreaking) not only nonhostile toward you, but they will actively destroy anything hostile towards you, so you own the place.

You can even sit on the throne, listening to the ambient throne room music while your vision shifts to the floating oculi in the various maps to get a scenic view.

But wait, that's boring, how do we make this better? PvP!

If you invade another map (this only works for dickwraiths), the enemies on the map you invaded will actively assist you in destroying the host- the floating oculi pointing all the creature's in the area to your position to call reinforcements. Likewise, if you are invaded in any part of your world, you can find them and go out to battle with all the abominations helping you secure the world.

If the invader and the invaded are wearing crowns, the enemies will attack both in the battle of the kings, so the PvP potential for "Ruin King Invasions" would be very interesting, especially since there are oodles of rather unfriendly weapons secured from the quest line thus far :3

Lastly, if you had Agathyn's assistance, he will appear at the blacksmith's:

"Finally- I can get some peace and quiet around here, unless you decide to go mad and screw everything up as bad as he did." He laughs, "Nah- you seem like a pretty good kid. Here- I don't need this crap anymore anyways. And Thanks."

**Uncanny Ring**: "A plain, dark iron ring with few characteristics, but, sometimes, the best things are gained not from a great power or flashy effect, but a little touch of uncanny luck…" though it doesn't list it, this ring boosts your I-frames by 10- two full tiers of adaptability, speeds your parrying rate, and raises your critical hit rate by lowering the enemy's. It may look useless to most players, but to an experienced player that uses many advanced moves, the difference would be great- and since it carries no aura when you wear it, it could be a sneaky ace-card for rogues.

**Scrap Greatsword**: "A curved greatsword that's been patched so many times, one must wonder if any part of the old material remains. Nonetheless, despite its appearance, this blade is very strong in the hands of the capable." Does a good amount of damage and has a spinning two handed R2 attack to boot, plus, it can parry when held in the left hand or with both hands using L2. It's like a deadlier, slightly stronger Marakumo- that's even more dickishly fun with the Uncanny Ring ;3

And his old scavenger's armor, which carries various special effects like the Jesters Armor and has fairly good defense for a lightweight set:

**Torn Welding Gloves**: "A pair of tough gloves covered with scorch marks and coming apart at the seams. To a highborn knight, this homely gear will hardly be appealing, but its functionality is tried and true."

**Rugged Coveralls**: "Tough, heavy suit made to survives intense heat and tearing- covered with soot and shards of metal soaked in oil. To a highborn knight, this homely gear will hardly be appealing, but its functionality is tried and true"

**Rusted Boots**: "Steel toed boots that've walked so many steps, the pad has nearly torn from the lopsided, decrepit fabric. The steel toe and cleats are covered with rust. To a highborn knight, this homely gear will hardly be appealing, but its functionality is tried and true."


End file.
